LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

©^nji ©»itF*1iJ 

UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



BALLADS OF AMERICA 



Ballads of America 



OTHER POEMS 



HENRY O'MEARA 



" Forsan et hjec olini meminisse juvabit " 

Virgil — ^neid. Lib. i 




•I X. 



BOSTON 
D A M R E L L AND UP H'A M 

Cfje ©lU Corner Bookstore 
I 891 




^^^ 

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Copvriirht, tSgi 
By henry O'MEARA 



JiochtDtU «iib Cburrbill 

BOSTON 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 

IN WHOSE UNIQUE INDIVIDUALITY 
THE GRACES OF 

Science, Ultit, itttb ^^cc&y; 

UNITE WITH 

RIVALLING YET MUTUALLY ENHANCING 
CHARMS 



-^j:^:±ir/ 



XtiA/ {/ 




PRELUSIVE, 



HTF prelusive prose annexed to proeniial verse 
-*- be not a vestibule too bold for this modestly 
proportioned volume, a line of acknowledgment 
here may be admissible. The hymns and songs 
cannot now be claimed as of first presentation, 
the former, with the musical compositions, hav- 
ing been produced from the press of Roeder, at 
Leipsic, and, with the latter, issued in the sheet- 
music form by an American house. It is grateful 
also to add an acknowledgment of the flattering 
comments and substantial guarantees received 
from gentlemen whose places in literature and 
public life would alone be suthcient to warrant 
this publication, and particularly of the kindly 



8 PRELUSIVE. 

words and good wishes, us well as aeceptance of 
a Dedication, from one whose name is in itself 
an adornment in this L-onnection, — Dr. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes. 

In regard to the groups of poems, it is perhaps 
timely to state that the two which may appear 
elliptical in theme are designed as nuclei of more 
systematic collections, — tliat under the title 
'' Revolutionary Period " being })rojected for a 
series on events in chronological se(|uence which 
may be designated as the " Siege of Boston " ; 
and that under " Shakespearian Pearls," for the 
portrayal of conceptions of the master dramatist 
which are not found suitable for stage delineation, 
or of such elements in the acted characters as are 
deemed too subtile for histrionic embodiment. 





CONTENTS 



PKOEMIAL 

REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 

The Boston Massacke — 1770 .... 

Sam Adams — Sonnet ...... 

The Battle ok Shirley Strait — Boston IIarrok. 
Mary Washington ....... 

CIVIL WAR PERIOD 

The Martyr Liberator — On the Emancipation 

Group ........ 

Memorials on Gettysburg Field .... 

Rondeau on U. S. Grant ..... 

The Herald of the New South — For the 

H. W. Grady Mebiorial ..... 
Veteran.s' Rallying Song — National G.A.K. 

Convention, 1890 ...... 



Page 
13 

1". 
17 
21 
22 

2(; 

29 

31 
39 
41 

42 

4G 



10 



CONTENTS. 



LATER THEMES 

Illumined Liherty — ^The Bartholdi Statue in 

New York Harbor ..... 

John Harvard's Memorial .... 

B. V. Siiillarer — "Mrs. Partington". 

To Gladstone ....... 

Boston to Marietta — ()n the Ohio Centenni.\.i 
The Hero Coast Guard — Life-Saving at 

Nantasket 
Welcome to the White Fleet — At IIeueption 

TO Squadron of Evolution 
The FLA(t above the School 



DRAMATIC 

Shakespearian Pearls . 

Isabella — 'Measure for Measure" . 

Imogen — ' ' Cymbeline " . 

Cordelia — " King Lear " 
Harry Murdoch — Burned at Brooklyn Theatri 
The Reopening of the Boston Museum 
To Lawrence Barrett ..... 

ELORAL 

The Spring Bulbs" Advent .... 
A Precocious Hyacinth ..... 



Page 
49 

51 
53 
55 

57 
59 

GO 

64 
68 

71 
73 
73 
74 
75 
77 
79 
81 

83 

.85 

87 



CONTENTS. 



11 



FLORAL. — Continued. 

Tm: Tk.v-Rosk Triad ..... 
To THE Golden Rod ..... 
Nymphoea Devonien.'^i.s — Nigiit-Bloo.ming Water 
Lily ........ 



CLOISTRAL AND MEMORIAL 
The Heroes of Montmartke 
To A Si.ster of Notre Dame 
A Tran.si'lanted Bloom ..... 
A Mother's Memory ..... 
A Young Heart Stricken .... 
The Higher Vision — Reply to an Agnostic 



HYMNS 

Let not Thy Face Averted be . 
O Esca Viatorum ! — After St. Thomas Aquinas 
Ave Maria — For Musical Theme on Bach' 
Third 1'kelude . ..... 



MISCELLANEOUS 

The Muse of Israel 
The IIari- of Moore 
Oliver Wendell Holmes 



Page 

90 
!)1 

92 

95 
97 
101 
103 
105 
106 
107 

111 
113 
115 

117 

119 
121 
124 
12G 



12 



CONTENTS. 



MISCELLANEOUS. — Continued. Page 

A ViRGiLiAN Charade ...... 128 

The Sacred White PjLephant from Siam . . 129 

The Last Day of Pompeii ..... 131 

The Solitary 135 

On a Golden Wedding ...... 137 

A Boy's Christmas Greeting — On a Portrait 

OF Adelbert Potter ..... 139 

Duty's Wear — On W. IL Baldwin's Birthday . 140 
Wealth and Worth— On the Death of Henry 

P. Kidder 142 

John Boyle O'Reilly 143 




PROEMIAL. 

A SAGE who gleaned from all things inl}' gain, 
With test of load on load his pupil plied, 
Till Labor's part came leagued with that of Pain — 
" Enough," spoke he ; •' you've borne this grosser 
strain — 
Feel now the lesson's subtler weight beside : 
Not by men's force alone is victory won — 

Allied must fortitude and effort be, 
Great deeds by strength with suffering joined are 

done, 
For dual ways of life merge these in one — 

Through each there lies but variance of degree ; 
Doing and bearing blend in shaded line, 

And high-lit power is reared on dim-wrought 
base. 
Low toils in tears suffused exalted shine, 
Achievements on endurance shaped define 

A free land's course — the road that lifts a race." 



* « — £^^5~-» * 



Sal^e tl^e sVveet poetcvi of li[e aVvav^, 



WORDSWORTH. 



REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 



Slpii^gs o[ Seep sei^se \ve npavj iip 

prose ui^folS, 
But tl^ev] n^aclp njoce iij lo[tv| 

ijunpbers tol6. 




THE BOSTON MASSACRE. 

MARCH 5, 1770. 

T I ^IS March — the frosted ways are crystal 

-*- 'neath the crescent light, 
Fitly relucent glow for deeds that blot, yet gild 

this night — 
Its stain, the patriots' mantling blood as light 

effused as spray, 
Its gold, an auric glimmer ere a dawning Nation's 

day, 
Rising to flame in freemen's souls, hot-fanned 

by hirelings' breath, 
While air bereft of liberty is charged with dews 

of death. 



18 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Long has the City's Chivalry hurled back the 
helot chain, 

Spurned links of thrall with proud will fetter- 
less in vain; 

A Charter scorned, an oni'nous squadron brood- 
ing on the Bay, 

Troops quartered on a chafing Town tell Britain's 
lust of sway. 

With idolled leaders outlawed — - imposts and 
vassal taxes planned — 

Her aliened offspring yield no tribute of a filial 
hand. 

" Adams and Hancock will be seized I " — this 
night the warnings ring — 

Through King Street rumors steal despite the 
sentry of the King — 

" Disperse, conspirators I " the stern demand is 
heard from him — - 

The group, in sullen silence firm, is riveted and 
grim ; 



THE BOSTON MASSACRE. 19 

Hence free civilians throng, here Preston's rein- 
forcements meet — 
A moment, and a deathlike stillness falls upon 

the street. 
Fiercely the scene is rent witli roar of musketry 

and strife — 
Swiftly the startled City wakes to patriotic life ; 
Boston is roused to hear her stricken sons' 

avenging cry. 
The crimson on her streets, foreshowing crime of 

deeper dye. 
Hearts beat — " to arms '' — eyes flash like signal 

fires on Beacon Height, 
New England's righteous flame is stirred to rage 

of martial might ; 
" Fire ! Fire ! " rings forth — from Brattle Street's 

bold tower outpeals the bell — 
That fire ignites a Nation's life — that peal is 

thraldom's knell. 



20 



BALLADS OF AMERICA. 



Then was a blow at king-craft by a sovereign 
people aimed — 

Then, as an Adams proved, " an Empire's sever- 
ance stood proclaimed." 





SAM ADAMS. 

SONNET ON THE WHITNEY STATUE, BOSTON. 

LEADER by Nature sent to stir an age 
When men were kindled with the pent-up ire 

That rebel sou had caught from burning 
sire — 
Hero whose prescient thought and theme presage 
The later franchise on our Nation's page ; 

Whose swerveless powers new chivalry inspire. 

This bronze outbreathes an innate spirit tire, 
Bespeaks a statesman brave, a patriot sage, 

A mind of adamant to mould the time — 
Betokens olden Boston's worth and fame. 

Tells that a People's flash of hope sublime 
Is fanned by Geiiius into Freedom's flame, 

That still four generations' deeds and prime 
Are stamped and pictured in the Adams' name. 





THE BATTLE OF SHIRLEY STRAIT. 

BOSTON HARBOR, 177G. 



I 



N Boston's Spring of Pride — :her soil from 

senrinel ranks set free — 
While Britain's navy yet unvanquished shut her 

from the sea, 
King George's vulpine brood of ships hung still in 

hostile quest, 
Their black hulls marred, as blots on Liberty, her 

Harbor's breast. 
Spread like a low'ring brow of war across the 

Bay — 
Nantasket's surf-wrought crescent spanned to 

Winthrop's wall of spray. 

"• I'll vow," the British captain said, '' no rebel 

privateer 
Shall dare to leave this Town or stir a sail while 

we lie here." 



THE BATTLE OF SHIRLEY STRAIT. 28 

They dreamt not of the sturdy hearts with whom 

their fleet shoukl cope, 
Of Mugford's men whose fishing-smack bore off 

their navy's " Hope." 
Now with the " Franklin " steals the fisher hero 

forth to Shirley Strait — 
The saucy cruiser " Lady Washington " a worthy 

mate ; 
But here capricious tides and currents lure his 

hast'ning band, 
And craft that scorned a navy's strength lie 

captured by the strand. 
With Britain's instinct to surprise the trapped 

or supine prey, 
An armed flotilla from the fleet speeds proudly 

to the fray ; 
Barges and boats in shoals careen around th' 

encircled prize — 
But stay — the soul of Battle blazes in the pa- 
triots' eyes ! 

Though tier-shot sweep their spar and shroud, 
and langrage tear their sail, 



24 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

From cannons' mouths they hurl back musket- 
balls like death-borne hail ; 
Wheeling, the barges meet at every turn in that 

swift eddy 
The " Franklin's " levelled metal and the swivels 

of the "Lady." 
" One effort more — quick — board their decks I " 

the British leader cries — 
Grappling and scrambling from their boats, the 

agile seamen rise ; 
"Lively, my men," — calls Mugford; " pikemen, 

show your mettle now ! " — 
The foes impetuous scale the boarding-net from 

stern to bow ; 
Defenders and assailants lock in lierce palestric 

strife 
As, man to man, each grimly fronts the struggle 

of a life. 

The sun that early lit the fight grows lurid ere 

its set, 
And looks askant o'er Shawmut's hills to find 

them struggling yet. 



THE BATTLE OF SHIRLEY STB AIT. 25 

At last with spear and pike-head all that blood- 
stained net is rent, 

The boldest barges crippled, the heart's-tide of 
the tenants spent. 

Sullen the proud flotilla turns to leave its prize 
unwon, 

Its statel}^ sortie foiled, its vaunted task un- 
done. 

When dawn shone over Winthrop Head a child 
by Shirley's tide 

Discerned the British leader's form, a spear- 
wound in the side ; 

But dearly was that victory for a striving 
people bouglit, 

For Mugford's last long cruise was done — his 
final battle fought ; 

No more his feats would thrill old Marblehead — 
her captain brave 

Had found the <leath he courted in that duel of 
the wave. 



IN MEMORY OF MARY WASHINGTON. 

THE OBELISK DESIGNED A HALF CENTURY AGO FOR THE GRAVE 

OF Washington's mother is still unfinished 

AND NEGLECTED. 

"IVTOW are the centenary days unrolled, 
-i-^ On whose swift round a Nation's theme 

is told — 
Our Chieftain chosen with a land's acclaim, 
With civic wreath encircling martial fame — 
In fealty our love's deep proffer made, 
Our debt to Washington in flushed hearts paid. 
But while that name, in life lenascent reigns. 
One duty lives — one echoing void remains. 



In shadow of Virginia's valley dim. 
Where she was wont to muse — to dream of 
him. 



IN MEMORY OF MAEY WASHINGTON. 27 

Lies low the heart that all his pulsing shared, 
Throbbed in his hopes, in pains and perils 

dared ; — 
The mother, whose unnoted scenes were done 
When far-off preans were sounding for the son. 
A hundred Springs have waked the glad'ning 

ground, 
And Autumns thrown their radiant cinctures 

round ; 
Yet we, insensate, yield not fruitful care. 
While winds have planted weeds and wild 

flowers there. 



O, heirs of him, bequeathed a ransomed Land, 
Repay that life's rich meed with filial hand ; 
No more remiss in memory of the dead. 
Who sleeps by lonely Rappahannock's Bed ; 
Set forth the Obelisk of a century's thought — 
Redeem that Vale where War's red deeds were 

wrought ; 
Let brothers' blood that full her soil baptized. 
Blent in her mound, be fused and crystallized ; 



28 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Deep in her shrine amid the meadows sere. 
In living lines serene as her, and clear, 
Chisel that word above the chastened breast. 
With shining love reluming shrouded rest — 
" Mary, Mother of our Washington, lies here ! 




CIVIL WAR PERIOD 



X or Kuoest n^i^^s Vvitl^ fparn^oi^vi 

Were caag^pt, 
jXt^b civil li[e \A/a5 bvi tipe Muses 

tauglpt. 



ROSCOMMON. 



THE MARTYR LIBERATOR. 



ON UNVEILING THE EMANCIPATION GROUP, " LINCOLN STRIKING 
THE SHACKLES FROM SLAVES." 



LIFT up tlie gToiq) — lift liiiu who raised the 
lowly of his kind. 
Friend of the slave — ■ who struck the shackles 

from the limbs and nund ; 
Embalm in bronze a Nation's loss — a People's 

guardian slain — 
The freedman's shattered Shield — embody, too, 
a Race's grain ! 



Lift high the life-linked forms — they cannot 

reach his lofty thought ; 
Make lirm — they never can outlive the fame 

and work he wrought. 



32 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Yet slii'oud no more his lineaments — nor dwell 

on loss alone, 
The death was but his country's grief — its 

grandeur's still his own. 
Not all the groups of gods in Attic art or 

Antique story 
Give bonds in brass of grander worth — more 

bright, emblazoned glory. 



The lowliest flower, 'tis said, will sing to listen- 
ing ears that learn — 

Nature shows rich analogies to those who will 
discern ; 

Thus, too, this new Memorial speaks through 
voiceless bronze and stone — 

Its sound is that of snapping chords, like Mem- 
non's wondrous tone ; 

It tells of him to whom the call was given to 
see the right. 

To speak the potent word and marshal men in 
Conscience might. 



THE MAHTYR LIBERATOR. 33 

As when tlie moon, full ciimson, i)eers through 

forest dense and dim, 
And eircumfusing, manifests each dark and 

knotted limb, 
That lurid theme of war and slavery, death and 

lavished tears 
Kindles to sight the shame and sorrow of two 

hundred years. 
Deep in the background of those darkly omened, 

bygone times. 
The diorama shows two freighted barks from 

sundered climes, — 
One bears to Plymouth men demanding free- 
dom of the soul. 
One to Virginia wretches in the slaver's grim 

control. 
Not all our picturing words nor lura'ning Art can 

show 
The blight and suffering brought in that Dutch 

slave-ship's freight of woe. 
Then first the Valley of the James resorbed the 

bondsman's breath — 
Mother of States and Presidents, — she bore the 

germs of death. 



34 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

But who can gauge the rain of tears and 

heart-wrung griefs that fell — 
The wrongs and groans that rang since then 

what tongue of ire shall tell ? 
At last rose one who dared to do the martyr 

patriot part, 
To warm deductions of the brain with prompt- 
ings of the heart — 
The word of Science tells us that the heart force 

of a life 
Would wear to dust a granite column grated 

by its strife ; 
And so the heart of Lincoln and the Nation 

blent as one, 
Ground on the rock of Slavery till all its base 

was gone. 
As braye Telemachus amid Honorius' yictims ran, 
He gaye himself to dust that man might cease 

to trample man. 
Furious arose the enslaying throng, and rang 

Secession's cry — 
They rushed to arms lest Freedom liye — he 

met them lest it die. 



THE MARTYR LIBERATOR. 35 

Occasions of great pith and moment, if they 

serve at all, 
Like Manna of the Hebrews, must be gathered 

as they fall. 
"Delenda est Carthago" was the sliibl)()letli of old, 
"Delenda est Servitns," later, grander deeds 

foretold ; 
Stern L'Overture, on San Domingo's blood- 
drenched shore 
A half a million in his land from Spanish bondage 

tore ; 
But Lincoln gave four milHons of a misprized 

race release, 
Yet held to foes the waiting hands of union 

and of peace. 
Forsfivino; then he met the conflict's brunt, the 

treason's scar, 
As sandal copse bestowing perfume on the l)lades 

that mar : 
And like the sandal tree, his nature spurned a 

crawling tiling — 
Aspiring heart, as gentle blood, true chivalry 

should bring. 



3G BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Swiftly the weapon of the assassin smote his 

startled brain. 
Awe-struck the Nation heard her ^-uide and 

cherished chief was slain ; 
Pulses then heat as one — a spray of tears 

bedewed the Land, 
For him who held a People's hope and pur- 
pose in his hand. 
Still, like a stream through snowy moon-lit 

fields, 
His heart's effusive tide, a glowing, melting 

moisture yields. 
His memory's sweet as winds that woo the 

white anemones — ■ 
His dying moan in blanched liearts wakes un- 

dyino^ monodies. 



Round him, as Washington, the clustering stars 

of Union gather. 
On him they liing tlie lustre of the Nation's 

head and father ; 



THE MAiiTYR LIBERATOR. 37 

The lirst l)e(j[ueathed their realm and rights to 
colonists oppressed. 

The last redeemed a race, the wrongs of centu- 
ries redressed. 

His temples' gory glow the laurels of his fame 
shall screen, 

Like aloes tliat each liundredth year shall find 
alive and green. 

Contide no more alone to cenotajjhs or columns cold. 

The cause — the memories that warm and wake- 
ful hearts should hold. 

A thousand years agone, Dutch bulwarks checked 
tlie Zuyder Zee — 

A thousand years to come nnist clay and wil- 
low curb that sea. 

" The god of Nature sleeps," the pliant Epicurus 
taught ; 

"By wary work," cried saged Demosthenes, "our 
Freedom's bought." 

Thus shall be stamped upon that broad based 
mound, a million graves — 

" The martvr land of Lincoln ne'er ao'ain siiall 
nurture slaves." 



38 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

A race set free, the land at jjeace, his life and 
labor past, — 

His euthanasia crowned, is crystallized in death 
at last ; 

Ages of thraldom now with Lincoln's deedful 
days are done ; 

The age of thronging thought and throned lib- 
erty begun ! 





MEMORIALS ON GETTYSBURG FIELD. 

THERE let memorials deathless rise to tell 
Each spot where martyrs to their prized 
land fell, 
Each monolith of praise — of martial meed, 
Standing 'mid light of monumental deed. 
Where heroes dared — ■ their lives last proffer 

made, 
Their measure full in immolation ])aid. 



Not dead lie these dumb symbols of the strife. 
But mutely speaking that most crucial life. 
That struo-orle of a Nation's heart sustained 
When patriot nerves were tense and pulsing 
strained. 



40 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

When Union vital hung upon the field, 
And listened for the import it should yield — 
On Gettysburg, where centred foes were hurled 
With clash of impact echoing to the world ! 




RONDEAi: ON IT. S. GRANT. 

O CHIEFTAIN gone! Your vital deeds 
remain, 
Though stilled he vibrant pulse and war-stirred 
brain. 
Hushed be the heart — the living spirit flown — 
Our Union cleaves to your bond as her own — 
Claims with a deathless grasp your life-wrought 

chain 
Though past and crowned be internecine pain, 
Its lingering impulse still her sons retain — 
Into our lives has yours, great leader grown, 
O Chieftain gone ! 
Ever our memories glow your fire maintain. 
Enkindling patriot potency again ■ — 

Nevei' shall men, while name of flrant be 

known, 
Despair of martial voice, of hero tone — 
Invoke, O vanished chief, your spell in vain, 
O Chieftain gone U 




THE HERALD OF THE NEW SOUTH. 



WRITTEN FOR THE MEMORIAL TO IIENUV MOODFEN GRADY, 
ATLANTA, OA. 



TVi-UST 
1>1L Thf 



UST we concede the life so swiftly flown 
hat seemed V)ut 3'esterday to breathe 
our own — 
The pulsing stayed that through our lands he 

sent, 
In wliose one impact North and South were 

blent — 
His cords, yet vital, stilled with tone al)ound- 

ing — 
His heartstrings sundered by their vibrant 
sounding ? 



Too well we feel the import of our fears, 

The wide-flashed word, " The South is steeped 

in tears." 
Fitly she weeps for her chivalric son 
Who turned to her, in flush of triumph won, 



THE HERALD OF THE NEW SOUTH. 43 

The filial voice to gain her glad a|)plavise — ■ 
The golden tongue to plead — to gild her 
cause. 



That spirit note — the music of his speech, 
Is silenced now in earthly hearings reach ; 
Snapped is the silvern thread — -the resonant 

soul — - 
Though severed, still its paeans reverberant 

roll — 
All hearts their hope-rung chants in mourning 

merge, 
All joyous dreams translate into a dirge. 



Fallen in hero prime of conscious power. 

His fame lives on and soothes her anguished 

hour ; 
Yields to the land of Calhoun and of Clay 
His name as heirloom to her later day — 
A legacy by life's oblation left, 
A breathing solace to a home bereft. 



44 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

That knightly nature's gift — that intellect's 

grace, 
Relieved attrition wrought by clash of race 
That reason poised in sympathy supreme, 
Revealed translucent i)athos in his theme, 
Bade clamor cease — taught candor's part to 

cure — 
Bade trutli appear more true, pure thought 

more pure. 

But is the zenith reached — his record done. 
His duty closed beneath meridian sun? 
Was it for him like meteor flash to sweep — 
Athwart the heavens, as vaulting lightnings 

leap 
On living errand our dimmed orbit cleave — 
On mission radiate, yet no message leave? 

Ah, no — his flame rose not to fall anon — 
His words as phrase to glitter and be gone ; 
Not evanescent in the minds of men. 
His ling'ring oratory speaks again — 



THE HER ALU OF THE NEW tiOUTlL 45 

An era's nuncio in a nation's view — 

An envoy of another South, and new. 

For now through prescience 'neath his Southern 

kies 
The grander vision greets our Northern eyes ; 
The proud mirage he conjured up we see — 
His picturing of her jjotency to be, 
Her virile wealth of sun and soil and ore 
Her new-born freedom's force far nobler store. 



With sectional lines and marring feuds effaced. 
Their racial problems solved — their blots 

erased — 
Full in that vision circumfused shall rise 
A symbol that his life rays crystallize, 
For all our state loves lit in him to stand — 
For bonds that Georgia's genius lent to all our 

land. 





VETERANS' RALLYING SONG. 

NATIONAL ENCAMPMENT, G.A.R., BOSTON, IS'JO. 

(Air — ''Marching through Georgia.") 

RALLY now in veteran lines at Victory's 
note of pride — 
Life's truceless foe is striking laurelled heroes 

from our side, 
Bid the bygone ranks return — • their deeds with 
us abide — 
For we were Soldiers of Freedom ! 

Chorus. 

Hurrah: Hurrah I send forth a sound of cheer! 
Hurrah! Hurrah! for comrades far or near — 
Rally as in days when none could heed a doubt 
or fear — 
For we were Soldiers of Freedom ! 



VETERANS' RALLYING SONG. 



47 



Let our risen armies move along the gloried 

way — 
Our Avar-spent legions live again in patriots' 

glad array, 
Marshalled b}' remembrance dear aroused in us 
to-day — 
For we were Soldiers f)f Freedom ! 
Chorni<, etc. 

May our camp-fire's glow relume the memories 

they bore, 
And voices that revive the bivouac's cheer — 

the battle's roar. 
Sing the praise of peace and union blended 
evermore — 
For we were Soldiers of Freedom ! 
Chorus, etc. 




LATER THEMES 



oipe Worlo is so grarp^ agiS so 
ii^exl^aastible tl^at tl^errjes \or poen25 
sl^oal^ ipeVer be Vvaiptii^g. 



ILLUMINED LIBERTY. 

AT DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY, NEW YORK. 

nVT'OT us a gift inert to stand 
^^ Or alien at this haven view, 
But gnest in glow of Lafayette's land, 
Traversing space his heart-reach spanned — 
An old World's envoy to a New — 

Not with the blaze that Furies' eyes, 
In Fi'ance's Night of Terror bore, 

But with rays to fuse the Nations' skies — 

Genius of Freedom radiant rise, 

A halo round our symboUed shore ! 

Point to the\r course the people's weal. 
Republics charged with Manhood's freight, 

Show reefs that social mists conceal — 

'Mid rocks of Anarchy reveal 

Each wreck that marks an omened fate. 



52 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Flash out electric ire to awe 

The foes that low'r on chartered Light, 
Dream that our Nation's prophets sa^y — 
Liberty sphered in lucent law, 

In anadem of aureoled Ri^ht ! 




JOHN HARVARD'S MEMORIAL. 

BY Time entombed, nntracetl by living eye — 
Oblivion-merged his vital embers lie, 
Whose primal spark, the glow of Harvard's 

name, 
Enkindled first New England Culture's flame ; 
Still shines his soul's expression crystallized, 
Through loving care of Art idealized 
His lumined form in speaking bronze revealed, 
His spirit clear in lineaments unsealed. 

Not all the radiance shed o'er Pharos Isle 
That beaconed far the gateway of the Nile 
Outshone the wide-sent rays of him revered, 
In form ideal on this " delta " reared. 
At morn's tint Memnon from his verberant 

shrine 
Evoked sweet tones, to faith of old divine ; 



54 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

This Life, of new-dawned science prescient long, 
Tuned forth our learning, poesy, and song. 

Full in its beams Memorials rose to tell 
Of heroes that in Manhood's morning fell, 
Chivalric sons who proffered sword and pen — 
Who burned to strive or die to ransom men, 
With gift that scholarship aglow can yield. 
With martial flash to light a "Soldier's Field," 
To fuse a realm — recast a people free — 
Their fire was caught, fair Harvard, all from 
thee ! 





BENJAMIN F. SHILLABER. 

" MRS. PARTINGTON." 

THE spirits, full oft, that in Fancy abide, 
Show briars 'neath the blossoms of wit that 
adorn. 
And hearts that in roses of humor confide 
Are pierced with asperity's barb which they 
hide — 
Transfixed on their path with adversity's 
thorn. 

This mind that found root in the mirth- 
planted bower 
Where nettles in touch with soft petals 
appear, 
Turned to view but the bloom of a ripe nature's 

dower — 
A genius of kindliness radiant in flower. 
With calyx of wit and corolla of cheer. 



56 



BALLADS OF AilElilCA. 



Good-by to his life-growths and loved themes 
they bring" — 
To the pathos and pleasantry conjured alike, 
Whose genial conceits to fond memories-cling, 
As his verse bore no venom and satire no 
sting — 
Good-by, Mrs. Partington, Blifkins, and Ike ! 




A GREETING TO GLADSTONE. 

STATESMAN, whose pisans have sounded 
out fourscore, 
Accept a greetmg- from our echoing shore — 
Approach the twentieth century's portico 
With steps that never senile hxpse foresliow — 
For now upon this opened eightieth year, 
With virile cause and firm advanced career, 
A continent may not contain your name, 
Nor ocean's bound confine your buoyant fame. 
Grand oak that spreads with ever-strengthening 

form — 
That grows and towers through strivings and 

through storm — 
Your boughs all people's aspirations span, 
All hopes uphold that reach the rights of 

man — 
Your sprays their sundered works for freedom 

bind 
With sympathies and oratory twined. 



58 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Still in the roll of deeds for manhood done — 
The record of those moral victories won — 
In rounded life of thought for all the race, 
Our partial eyes perceive one interspace — 
'Mid strifes with vested wrong — with racial 

woe — 
We see you in remote horizon low ; 
Turn now from themes of home or Orient far, 
Meet once the Western trend of empire's Star — 
Visit this soil with trans-Atlantic rays 
Whose proud autonomy evokes your praise ; 
Come as a meteor at meridian height 
That arches lands with eloquence of light — 
The century shall not mark a nobler meeting — 
Columbia claims to speak this life's autumnal 

greeting. 




BOSTON TO MARIETTA. 

ON THE OHIO CENTENNIAL. 

FAIR daughter seated by Oliio's stream, 
First offspring of the East in Aarile days 
The rucTcred West to win and then redeem, 
May not our thought sound now a mother's theme, 
Maternal throbs attune thy century's hiys ? 

May vibrant memories of these years unite 
To speak the kinshi[) of our parted band 
That reared thy radiant Commonwealth in light, 
In love for law, for knowledge, freedom, right — 
For all that chartered ground wliere Boston's 
children stand. 



THE HERO COAST GUARD. 

DEDICATED TO CAPTAIN JAxMES AND THE LIFE-SAVERS 
AT NANTASKET. 

ANOTHER wreck upon the rocks ! " — 
the sharp cry seemed a knell 
That cleft the storm, and on tlie ears of toil- 
spent surfmen fell ; 
All night a captain valorous and a voluntary 

crew 
Swerveless had fought the sea — and now their 
summons comes anew. 

Thrice from the wrath of waves they wrest 

lorn ships and freights of lives — 
At weary dawn this call from dread Atlantic 

Reefs arrives. 
On Stony Beach, on fissured Iduff, they speed 

their desperate way. 
With boat and buoy through blinding sleet-gusts 

and disputing spray. 



THE HERO COAST GUABI). 61 

Now they descry the sufferers in the shrouds, 

but know not pause — 
A ship lies crushed on bouklers in that ledge's 

cruel jaws. 

'' Quick — push the lifeboat off ! " " It can't live 
here," a follower cries ; 

" It must — those men aloft must live," the 
leader wroth replies ; 

The Hunt-gun's hope-charged missile spans the 
bow — the hawser's fast — 

" Good ! — swing the breeches-buoy ! " a saving- 
link is clutched at last. 

" 'Tis vain — the whip-line is entangled in the 
wreckage there ! " 

On ship and shore a sense of fate is settling to 
despair ; 

"Yet seel" a fisher's smack, unawed l)v what 

those scenes forbode. 
Manned by three dauntless souls, athwart the 

raging maelstrom rowed. 



62 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

"They're lost!'' the captain moans — -"but where 

that fragile craft has been 
Should we not be, aboard the sturdiest boat tliis 

coast has seen ? " 
Answering with oars they near the ship despite 

the angered main, 
Nor flinch, though baffling breakers fling them 

back asrain. 



A struggling hour of noble onset waged for 

pendant life — 
A firm-held place abreast the mainmast ends the 

awful strife. 
Now, through that nest of death beneath the 

half-furled sail. 
One figure moves from tojjpling mizzen safe to 

trembling rail. 
His comrades follow, and 'mid cheers are l)roua'ht 

to joyous reach ; 
The rescuers and rescued, all are borne along 

the beach. 



THE HE no coast guard. 63 

But all I not all — never can pleasure come from 

aught complete. 
What form is that, the piteous, white face 

pleading in the sheet ? 
A young wife clam'rous cries, '' 'Sly husband's 

saved ? Speak — where is he ? 
Why have you left one man alone? O, point 

him now to me ! " 
Nerved where stern danger calls, ininerved their 

hearts where anguish crowds, 
The heroes, wordless, show her that man lashed 

amid the shi'ouds. 

Praise to these oaric knights while rocks be- 
speak their record won. 

Their deeds of new- wrought chivalry, of un- 
priced duty done ! 

Perils by land and sea are shared, each search- 
ing Valor's core — ■ 

Their courage as their calling binds the ocean 
and the shore. 




WELCOME TO THE WHITE FLEET. 

WRITTEN FOR RECEPTION TO ADMIRAL WALKER AND OFFICERS 
FROM THE SQUADRON OF EVOLUTION. 

FLOWER of the fleet, of youngest bloom and 
best — 
White group of sisters on our Harbor's breast, 
Borne by the land's new wealth of fashioning 

skill, 
By affluent forces of her Vakening will — 
Old Boston bids you welcome where abides 
The halo round our home of " Ironsides " ; 
To you her fame-lit years a charge transfers — 
A blazoned century's life be yours, as hers. 

Turn filial here to find maternal greeting. 
As turned our country's chief, his mission meet- 
ing— 



WELCOME TO THE WHITE FLEET. 65 

Here first an infant craft essayed to cope 
With Britain's bulk, to smite lier navy's 

" Hope " ; 
Twin cruisers througli the hull-walls tore a 

path, 
Hurled back their langrage and tlieir tier-shots' 

wrath ; 
Here where her Heet was banished from the 

Bay, 
Low'ring like Fiends of War with lust of 

sway, 
Our ocean envoys to an Old World's view. 
Take now this parting tribute from the New. 



Not at imperial beck from peasants wrung. 
But out the spirit of a people sprung. 
Your dower of strength our liberties attest — 
The genius of this Giant in the West. 
" Chicago," with tlie flag assigned to you 
Uphold her pride who lights our vast Lake's 
view ; 



66 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Colleague that bears for us a closer claim, 
Set forth our City's honor with her name ; 
Patrons of both the lesson brave inspire 
Fearless, as you, to meet the stress of fire ; 
Stand, " Yorktown," for our war of birthright past; 
"Atlanta," speak for triumph in the last 
And join with these in "marching to the sea," 
While "Boston'" links the record of the three. 



Go forth, bright Argosy, with theme un- 
rolled — 
The banner with the stars increased threefold. 
At home, from some familiar height, 

But out no lofty meaning raised, 
Our blaze of stars with streaks of light — 
Ignobly placed to lure men's sight, 

Hangs oft unheeded and unpraised: 
But when serene, alone, it shines, 

A joy on far ungenial lands, 
( )ur wanderer — in its flaming lines — 
The freeman's oriflamme divines — 

The people's miglit, for which it stands ; 



WELCOME TO THE WHITE FLEET. 



67 



And there, against a foreign sky, 

Exulting scans its form unfurled — 
There feels our synibolled Freedom nigh, 
llesorbs her breath that bids it tiy — 

Exalts in love her emblem u'er the world I 





THE P^LAG ABOVE THE SCHOOL. 

TT"NFURL our emblem free — 
v_'' A star-lit bond to be — 

Our symbolled Love ; 
May every ray abide, 
A glory, as a guide, 
Our Learning's course beside, 

And flame above. 

There let its impulse glow, 
Each line glad lessons show 

That youth may learn ; 
Clear in their beams combined, 
Li leao'ue of stars divined — 
Freedom in Union twined 

May all discern. 



BALLADS OF AMERICA. 69 

Banner whose sign we sing, 
Whose themes proud visions bring, 

We hail thee now ; 
With peerless past in view, 
Proffer a future true, 
And loj^al ties renew 

With free souls' vow ! 




DRAMATIC 



Mucfp is tt^e [orce o[ l^eaVe^-brei^ 
poesv^. 



SHAKESPEARE. 



SHAKESPEARIAN PEARLS. 



ISABELLA — IN "MEASURE FOR MEASURE." 

EXALTED issue of our Shakespeare's dream, 
Shine, Isabella, Star of cloistral roll — 
The shadowed lot thy vows of life redeem 
Is lit with radiance from a vestal beam — ■ 
An effluent lustre out thy virgin soul! 



Clad with thy vesture of illumined clay 
That Nature and Religion blent endow 

To fire men's hearts, yet guilt-wrought heat 
allay, 

With psychic charms too subtile for decay — 
Before thy power their tyrant passions bow. 



74 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 



IMOGEN — IN "CYMBELINE." 

In Imogen all pearls of wifehood shine, 
Conjugal truth and innnolation lend 

A life-lit halo to the spousal shrine 

While Nature's gems in nuptial beams combine 
Where jewels of connubial lustre blend. 



Clasped to this shrine, her wronged heart bides 
alone — • 

Each radial impulse cleft by Love's recision — 
Conjures an aureole phasma all her own, 
A soul's perfusion as a nimbus thrown 

On her the centred angel of the vision. 



SHAKESPEAEIAJ^ PEARLS. 75 



CORDELIA — IN " KING LEAR." 

Formed by that Master's subtile flame and 
power, 

Creature most pure by crucial wrong refined, 
Cordelia claims alone the precious dower — 
The twin-born graces of a dual flower, 

Conjugal faith and filial ties entwined. 



Ophelia pensive, Portia wise and fair, 
Juliet forlorn, Beatrice unbelieving, 
Helena tried, Hermione true and rare — 
Jewels you all creative genius share. 

But Qfemmed Cordelia is his soul's conceiving. 



Though fond and fierce by turn be fickle Lear, 

She still untired in love, by fear unstirred. 
Teaches to prize the simple and sincere — 
To pierce the guise of Vanity's veneer. 

To scorn pretence and hate the hollow word. 



76 



BALLADS OF AMERICA. 



Goneiil vows and Regan bends to gain, 

Yet calm Cordelia clings to truth nnswervinsf, 
As innate trust and worth her heart sustain — 
Self-poised above these sisters' sordid plane, 
Content and tranquil simply in deserving. 



Peerless Cordelia, whose sweet Nature glows, 
A petalled-pearl of rose-embosomed dew. 

That fresh fulfilment, not dry promise, shows — 

As liquid benison e'er limpid flows, 

A guile-parched world's athirst for such as you ! 




HARRY MURDOCH.^ 

" Behold — as may iinworthiness define — a little touch of Harry." 

Shakespeare, " Henry V." 

BOSTON yet looks on one bereavement — 
one link with Brooklyn's woe, 
A loss that meets not Time's retrievement — a 

grief that will not go ; 
Impatient Death, with fiery breath, brushed off 

a loved life's bloom, 
Shrivelled its blossoming hopes, and swept them 
down the hopeless tomb. 



Of all who felt that fiendlike flame, that clutch 

of cruel Fate, 
None leaves a more endearing name, none liearts 

more desolate, 

1 Burned at Brooklyn Theatre when in the role of "Pierre" in the 
" Two Orphans." 



78 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Than we who mourn, untimely torn from work 

of fame begun, 
Our Harry Murdoch, genial Art and giftful 

Nature's son. 

Now round his memory trooping come hosts of 

vanished friends — 
There jDOor "Pierre" limps, slowly drooping — 

here bold " Laertes " bends ; 
Sad, hand in hand, " Our Boys " return, but 

wit no more beguiles, 
" Antony " sings no more, and " Diedrich " 

brings but tearfvd smiles. 

O Winds that fanned Doom's vengeful flame, 

now moan for him you killed. 
Waft our warm sorrow, with his fame, to home 

and hearts now chilled ; 
With swift simoon of sympathy our praise, our 

comfort carry. 
And cry with Shakespeare — " Lord in Heaven 

bless thee, noble Harry ! " 




REOPENING OF THE BOSTON MUSEUM. 



HOME of gay Thalia ! greeting wide the view 
Where cohimn, stage, and fretted arch 
combine, 
As touched by fairy wand — - bedecked anew 
To grace loved Comedy's fair Columbine ; 
Like wanderer, with commingling smiles and 
tears. 
Who turns to scan his held of bygone dreams. 
We, lingering, note how every scene endears — 
E'en barren parts bear mellow Memory's 
themes ! 



80 



BALLADS OF AMERICA. 



Here Smith and Keacli bequeathed a generous 
soil, 
Here nightly gleamed the Thespian glow- 
worm's spark, 
Kipe merit meeting histrionic toil, 

Where reaped a Barrett, Barron, Vincent, 
Clarke. 
Time's change to rue — the favored Past to 
cite. 
Befits old friends, of cherished joys bereft ; 
Yet may we warrant all the present right 

While long our blithe, perennial Warren's 
left.i 



1 The last line is left uiiiiltered, us the poem is to be reu;ai-ded ouly iu 
counectiou with the time of the event for which it was written. 





TO LAWRENCE BARRETT. 

SEER of that chanted Art our nature craves 
To limn in light enshrouded days and men, 
To echo deeds fi'om dim Nirvana's caves — 
Lift to new fame oblivion-lapsing graves — 

Vest their dead themes with vivid life again ; 
Hispanian, Moor, Venetian, sweep along — 
Speak in your fire — your histrion pulsing 
own — 
The Dane tells dreamily his brooding wrong. 
The hate-wrouQ-lit Roman hisses in the throngf — 
Loved Man o' Airlie croons his lullaby alone. 




FLORAL 



J VvouI6 J l^sib sonpe floWers o' tlpe 

spi-iipg tl^at ryigl^t 
xjecon^e viour tin^e o' <5)av] ; Sa|[oi5)il5, 
of^at conje before tl^e sNA/alloW 

6are5 ; Violets i^inp, 
But sV/eeter tlpaip tl^e li^s o[ 

Juipe 5 evjes, 
Or Gvjtiperea's breatlp. 

WINTER'S TALE. 




THE SPRING BULBS' ADVENT. 

NOW from their clii'ysali.s trance our bulb- 
loves peer 
From brumal bound unprisoned to assume 
The hues that speak their forms' penumljra 

near — 
Nigh crystalled prime of this new liower-lit 
yea 
Whose tints the prisms of the spring illume. 



Here Tulip-cups cheer Flora's advent hours, 

Sad Hyacinths bear Apollo's symbolled plaint, 
Self-plumed Narcissi vaunt florescent powers — 
Join Daffodils, Jonquils — all akin in flowers — 
While vernal fingers fresh their petals paint. 



86 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Lone Colchiciims their plighted leafage show- 
As earnest of the bloom in autumn shed — 
But lily vestals, reflex of the 'parted snow, 
Prescient reveal their Resurrection glow — 
A halo gleaming round each aureoled head. 

Thus souls resurgent in supernal guise, 
As bulbs, to life of loftier being cling ; 

From earth-clad germ to sun-rayed growth 
arise — 

Gazing relumed, intent upon the skies — 
Unfading flower in sempiternal Spring ! 




A PRECOCIOUS HYACINTH. 



[The classic conceit as to the origin of the Hyacinth was that Apollo 
raised it from the blood of his beloved Hyacinthus, as a memorial to that 
victim of the envious Zephyrus.] 



HAS Spring advanced, else why her envoys 
here — 
These nuncios of bloom i)roclaiming nigh 
Her matin primal in the bloss'ming year — 
Coyly her bulbs from beds unfrosted peer, 
The coquette, Hyacinth, tempting Boreas' shy? 

Too swift this herald spurns her season's speed — 

The sphere wherein her A^ernal kin aspire, 
Yet tit disowns a taint of Winter's breed — 
Scion of stock so fair — so pure of seed, 
Was never offspring of Hibernal Sire. 

Why seek to rise when no sweet colleague can, 
To greet thy suitors ere they sanguine call — 
A pretty marplot in the flow'ring plan. 
Outstepping Flora's ranks to win the van — 
To lead them captive in thy luring thrall ? 



88 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Dost thou dispute the Storm-king's sway. 

In sortie plant the standard of the spring, 
Or, self-doomed as Telemachus, essay 
The conflict of fierce elements to stay — 

Athwart their strifes thy fragile body fling ? 

Ah ! subtler forces draw thee thus apace 

To ope thy charms despite the boreal breath. 
Frail nymph enamored of thy sun-god's face. 
Oblivious of the fate that limned thy race 
The deed that wrought fond Hyacinthus' death. 

Thy parent stem was reared, as poets sang, 
Apollo's grief to symbol yet assuage — 

To speak his stricken love — allay his pang ; 

Flushed with that beauteous Spartan's blood she 
sprang 
Formed of that martyr to Zephyrus' rage. 

Firstling of the bulb-queen's progeny and ])ride. 

Precocious now, yet precious in our view — 
Strange, but not alien, bloom to love allied. 
From treacherous blasts thy head empurpled hide, 
Rest till the season's truth evoke thy hue. 



A PEECOCIOXIS HYACINTH. 89 

Anon when thy spring-tide spouse shall bid 
thee rise 
In luteous veiling as a Roman bride, 
When saffron beams shall meet thy sapphire 

dyes, 
Blent in the iris of his affluent eyes. 
Vested in ambient Beauty's robes abide. 

Linked then to glad florescent life assume 

Aurora's right to mark the Vernal hours, 
The dawning of the roseate year relume 
That weds the aureate to the floral bloom. 
The sun's affusions to thine azured flowers. 

Rapt as Laconia in her love divine 

Our spring's oblation of thy praise shall be — 
Her incense flooding Hyacinthus' shrine 
Shall float in vibrant effluence to thine. 

Our paeans, O sun-wooed Hyacinth, to thee ! 



-^^2^^^ 

^^^-''M*"*-.*^ 




THE TEA-ROSE TRIAD. 

ON A GIFT OF PRIZE ROSES FROM C. W. GALLOUPE, ESQ. 

THREE roses rise envir'ning one gemmed 
view, 
Dipped each in varying, yet enhancing, hne — 
Steeped ever in a gleam of trinal Fancy's dew. 

Tlie Gontier's glow to rosy youth inclines, 
The Bride, a maid's clear truth and trust en- 
twines — 
The Mermet, with their loves in tint maternal 
shines. 

A Child on ruby life of bloom is bending ; 
A Maiden, charms to pallid })etals lending — 
A Matron, ripe of grace, both traits and beau- 
ties blending. 








TO THE GOLDEN ROD. 

~Ij^ LOWER tliat glad Summer gleams with 
-L charm indue. 

With conjuring rods evoking saffron dyes, 
To vest nude hills in joy of liue, 
To paint with clieer the vale's sad view 

And })oint above to freedom's sapphire skies — 
Our Nation's beams now summon thee, 

For gi-owtli of liberty aglow to stand, 
Her figured strength in bloom to l)e — 
Li garlands sun-wrought for the free, 

An aureate ensign on her o-olden land ! 




NYMPHOEA DEVONIENSIS. 



(the night-blooming water lily.) 



nvyAIAD of flowers, now supine, yet not sleep- 
-LM ing, 

With petals 'neath half-parted sepals peeping, 
Prone on the lake, and shy, till day's declin- 
ing. 
Hoarding pure dyes of pink through all its 

shining — 
Not as the sirens of cerulean guise 
That vaunt the sapphire of meridian skies — 
That lure at noon — at night their jewels hide — 
You spread vermilion cheer at eventide ; 
C'laiming the charm of sunset's lingerins: P'low — 
Lovingly hold heaven's carmine beams below ; 
As if your kin of far-off Pharaoh's days 
Had charged you 'gainst a term of banished 
rays 



NYMPHCEA DEVONIENSIS. 93 

When space from last-lit rim to long-reft dome, 
Should lapse to gloom of mural monochrome ; 
You gleam through soundless depths of wave 

and night 
In symphonies of vibrant, florid light. 

Whether of floral or fair human kind, 
Njnnph of sun-tinted form or love-hued mind. 
Self-merged in storing jovs for darkened hours 
While halcyon sunshine woos the floating 

flowers ; 
For bloom like yours men's Fancy fragrant 

turns — 
Grateful their frankincense of tribute burns ! 




CLOISTRAL AND MEMORIAL 



Verse. 



POPE. 




THE HEROES OF MONTMARTRE. 



[The birth of the Society of Jesus is traced to the vows made during a 
solemn visit at dawn, in 1534, of St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, and their 
seven companions, to the crypt on Montmartre where Christian France for a 
thousand j'ears has revered her martyr patron, St. Denys.] 



LOOMING o'er Paris, grave Montmartre 
Heights 
Ages of wondrous deeds and themes recall : 
Contests for Europe, strife for liomeland rights, 
Pillaging Northman, struggling Rome and 
Gaul ; 
France on that Hill of Martyrs saw the doom 

Her soldier-god and her Apostle shared : 
Napoleon, glory-crowned, engulfed in gloom ; 
Denys confronting calm the fate he dared. 
Gaining in death the grander crown his life 
prepared. 



98 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

This shrine of lustrous works saw one tran- 
scending. 
Outshining still its earthly glories' prime, — 
A League for souls, a Heaven-sent Light por- 
tending 
Bright victory for millions through all time. 
The darksome ante-dawn, a troublous year, 
Finds Clement dying, crushed by Papal 
care, 
Switzer and Briton tempt the mad career 
And barter Faith of old for Esau's share, — 
But this Montmartre Sun lights up the dire 
despair. 

Lo ! from the shadow Notre Dame at dawn 
Throws down on waking Paris, come ascend- 
ing 

The warrior souls from worldly paths withdrawn, 
Buoyant their way to gray Montmartre wend- 

Day-stars to light the mural future's sky, 

Toiling they long must climb —'tis Heaven's 
plan ; 



TUE HEROES OF MONTMARTRE. 99 

Full soon their lives for God shall fructify, 
And earth's elliptic orbit be the span 
Their toil shall reach, their victory for res- 
cued man. 

With aspect martial and august, shines one 
Whose soul of fire was lit to gleam afar, — 

Great Don Ignatius Gomez, Spain's blest son, 
Loyola's latest scion, Faith's last star ; 

Struck by the Power that stayed a Saul, and 
shook 
Augustine's soul at Milan's school, this man 

With Fampeluna's wounds and fame forsook 
Vain war and verse, and benisoned began 
Manresa's mighty Ode, — the theme, God's 
rights o'er man ! 

Beside him moves a youth whose spirit foun- 
tains 

O'erflowed with saving zeal a heathen strand ; 
Francis, the child of fair Navarra's mountains, 

" Angel of Indies," loved of every land ; 
To parched Japan he turned with Heavenly tide, 



100 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

And washed, withal, her yiekl of faitli's rich 

ore ; 
But, like the land to Moses' feet denied. 

Harsh China left him spent on her bleak 

shore, — 
A wave receding, yet resounding evermore. 

The germ such heroes planted bore the name, 

"• Society of Jesus," — bore it far. 
With fragrance blessing those who would de- 
fame. 
As sandal copse perfume the hands that mar. 
Parara's banks record Arcadian days 

When Jesuit Mentors showed what men 
might be ; 
Huron and Kaffir, — all recite their praise. 
And all the flowing years in Time's drear sea 
Can never quench their fire or drown their 
memory. 





TO A SISTER OF NOTRE DAME. 

O SISTER parted, yet a sister still. 
Though claiming now a name we little 
knew, 
Why take a trustful heart with steadfast will 

From those whom life's true tendons bind to you? 
Vocation sweet allures you to your Lord, 

To find content in cloistered Notre Dame, 
As mind and soul, conjoined in grand accord. 
Choose Ad major em Dei G-loriam. 



His greater glory now enshrines our pain, 
His mercy mitigation soft ensures, 

His love may well your life and death enchain, 
Whose liallowed path and footprints now 
are yours. 



102 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Then as 3^011 ^deld to Him a soul sincere, 
Oft may yonr Patron yet the gift renew, 

And by some grace of transmigration here, 
The Mrgin Martyr live again in yon. 

Religion's gain lends grief of loss snrcease — 

This choice of lot is bnt a happy haste ; 
Ours, sand oft swept by Passion's swift caprice. 

Yours, cool oasis midst a worldly waste. 
O doubl}^ Sister I that such claims entwine, 
Wliat faithful light through doubtful years 
and dim, 
To look toward one who yearns for Sjiouse 
Divine, 
And calmly leaves us evermore to cleave to 
Him! 





A TRANSPLANTED BLOOM. 



FROM every group Death takes a trophy 
dear, 
From every cluster claims a precious Hower ; 
And now so soon he plucks you from us here, 
Bright friend of many a blithe and sunn}'^ 
hour. 



How short it seems since last we happily met. 
With mingling mirth and friendship in each 
eye; 
And wliile the tliought with grief is struggling 

yet, 

How hard to give you but a prayer and last 
good-by ! 



104 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

O fresh and glad young life so early gone — 
O radiant mind and heart that still shall 
dwell 
In loving prayer and memory, living on — 
We leave you with one tearful long farewell, 
farewell ! 



-^ff^^ 





A MOTHER'S MEMORY. 

PAST mortal change, yet cherished still, 
O deep and deathless mother love, 
Thy children stricken feel the thrill — 
The living themes their memories till — 
Thy heart beats vibrant from above ! 

'Mid blest transition dear — not dead — 

O passing soul, thou may'st not cease — 
Abiding in a heavenly bed 
May ever rest thy })lacid head — 

Thy loving spirit sleep in Life of Peace! 




A YOUNG HEART STRICKEN. 

ON J. E. S. 

HEAVEN now thy vital toil has stayed, 
Thy last faint pulsing tender stilled, 
Lifting — to prove thy task fulfilled — 
The load of pain upon thee laid. 

O fair young Heart so swiftly gone — 

O throbbing Life in sweet release, 
Passing through griefs to longed-for 
peace — 

Thy beating vibrant lingers on ! 

Thy chords yet sounding none may sever — 
Their impulse blends bereaved heart's 

striving, 
In resonance of love surviving — 

In living unison forever ! 




THE HIGHER VISION. 



IN REPLY TO A DECLARATION OF ROBERT O. INGERSOLL. 



^^ 



TE know not, live not, past this 
mundane sisflit '" — - 

Proclaims a groper in Agnostic night ; 

Then must we limn in clay what men may 
know. 

What lines his loftier visions claim below — 

Must carnal bounded themes be deified, 

Heaven's craved revealings to his Hope de- 
nied — 

Life deemed a chain with fleshl}- links in- 
wrought. 

The world a charnel house for soul-reft 
thought ? 



108 BALLADS OF AMEBIC A. 

Look to that law set primal in his heart 
Whose glow the pencilling rays Divine impart ; 
'Tis but in prostrate purpose, loth to rise, 
'Tis with the prone of will the low view 

lies ; 
High-lit analogies the answer tell ; 
O'er torpid Nature fires resurgent dwell ; 
Dead bulbs as 'lumined lilies in such ray 
Arise and breathe in Resurrection's day ; 
Numb chrysalis forms take iridescent wing ; 
Pent germs from prisoning orbs soar free and 

sing. 



Is man more gross than bulb or grub or germ. 
His essence — through all matters cycling 

term — 
Less volatile than those of basest guise 
That mount to ether, baffling corporal eyes ? 
His vaulting flame less alien to decay 
Tlian sparks that out corrosion light their way, 
While in their flash ethereal space is riven 
And circumfusing arc spans earth and heaven ? 



THE IIIGIIER VISION. 



100 



Creation's universal voice replies, 

Despite transition, psychic force ne'er dies — 

Repels the phasnia of a spirit-death — 

Iiuniortal essence spent with mortal breath ; 

Dispels Nirvana dreams of palsied rest, 

Spurning their lethal peace for life possessed — 

Telling that man shall see, his being shine 

Beyond all cosmic spheres in light Divine 

Living as everlasting ages roll 

In higher sight — in holier vision of his Soul I 




HYMNS 



jortai^ati ar^bo si quiS rr^ei 
carnpiipa po55ui2t, 




LET NOT THY FACE AVERTED BE. 



LET not Thy face averted be, 
Thousfh ours for sin have swerved from 

Thee — 
Thy love, O Lord, unprized — 
Nor turn with eyes upbraiding more, 
But glance forgiving as before 
On hearts now agonized ! 



O beam benignant once again 

On fleeting lives and wills of men 

Li Passion's ruffling view — 
Where murky waves in currents fierce 
Repel faint lights that strive to pierce. 

May Thine come changeless through ! 



114 BALLADS OF AMEBIC A. 

O face illumed of Olivet, shine — 
Full in the radiance Divine 

Thy light transmuting pour — 
That on dimmed souls Thy rays may rest, 
As on Veronica's Veil impressed, 

Avert Thee nevermore ! 





O ESCA VIATORUM! 

AFTER ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. 

OFOOD of ])ilgrims faltering low ! 
O Bread that angel hosts foreshow, 
O Manna from on high, 
Thou givest taste of Heaven's own life 
To stay the craving and the strife — 
Our faint hearts hungry cry ! 



O Font Divine — o'erflowing Love, 
That out a Saviour's breast above, 

A rapturing current rolls — 
Sweet to our sin-parched nature streaming, 
O Livhig Spring from death redeeming 

Restore our swooning souls ! 



116 



BALLADS OF AMERICA, 



O Jesus, loved in light revealed — 
Though now in guise of bread concealed 

Lie all supernal rays, 
Grant that this veil withdrawn may be, — 
Our eyes Thy risen glory see 

Transfixed in deathless gaze ! 





AVE MARIA. 



PARAPHRASED FOR MUSICAL THEME ON BACH's THIRD PRELUDE. 



OLOVE inspiring — 
O Mary, grace possessed, 
Choice of all creatures blest. 
Life of our souls desiring — 

Ave Maria. 
Hail thou in wlioni the Lord abides, 
In whom maternal sway resides — 
Man's wav'ring heart in thee confides — 

Ave Maria ! 
Star most illuming, 

Send holiest rays 
Through sin-wrapped days, 
Piercing tlieir gloom — their grief consuming — 

Ave Maria ! 



118 



BALLADS OF AMERICA. 



O Loving Beam, on sinners shine — 
O Mother, lend this glow of thine, 
Then light us to thy Son Divine — 

Ave Maria! 

Amen. 




MISCELLANEOUS 



Poeir\^ is tl^e npasic o[ tl^ougl^t 
coi^Vevie^ to us ii^ tl^e npusic oj 
lai^guage. 



CHATFIELD. 




THE MUSE OF ISRAEL. 



MOURN not the Muse of Israel's children 
flown, 
O Sons, that nigh her Wall of Wailing moan — 
Deem not her tuneful day forever fled. 
Her Cantors gone — their vibrant grandeur 

dead, 
For Judali lives while Levi's Songs are sung. 
Or love or grief from lyre of David wrung — 
While captive chants o'er Babylon Waters' 

side — 
As timbrels over Egypt's yawning Tide, 
Plaintive in cadence of their long ago, 
Enchain the soul with psalteries of woe ! 



122 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Sweet through the Age's air she breathes 

again 
The rhythmic charm by her bequeathed to 

men ; 
And still her harp its theme harmonious brings, 
Though ruthless hands essay to rend the 

strings ; 
Rossini, Mendelssohn, and Meyerbeer — 
With such her Genius fills the Century's 

ear ; 
Her dulcet melody enchanting floats 
On Pasta's wave — on Grisi's liquid notes — 
On voiceful grace of lanks that resonant throng 
To blend her chords of psalmody and song — 
From joys that Miriam's jubilation rang 
To sorrows Jephtha's daughter dolorous sang. 



O Israel's marvelled Muse, what deathless power 
Invests thy pensive life with vital dower — 
^olian harp hung o'er one race alone, 
Whence is the breeze that wafts thy stayless 
tone ? 



THE MUSE OF ISRAEL. 123 

'Tis that whicli bore the Sire at Heaven's com- 
mand 
Across Euphrates to thy hallowed Land, 
His Spirit bids thee sad or buoyant be — 
His Canticles of Zion sigh and sing through thee ! 




THE HARP OF MOORE. 

WRITTEN FOR THE MOORE CENTENARY. 

THE statue at Thebes, in the shade mute as 
doom, 
Gave musical strains wlien the morn-light 
shone o'er ; 
So the Nation, once silent as Memnon in 
gloom. 
Trilled forth tuneful plaints in the sunshine 
of Moore. 

His verse lent the rays that relumine lier glory, 
His lyrics the voice still reciting her praise ; 

And their heart-thrilling themes yet revive her 
gone story — 
Her mirth and her melody live in his lays. 



THE HARP OF MOORE. 



125 



An ^.olian harp on a banyan bough pending, 
His Muse and sweet numbers were wafted 
above ; 
But his soul, to the soil, like the banyan tree 
bending 
Bore her best notes again to the Isle of his 
love. 

'Twas no nionochord music he rendered alone. 
For each lyre-string sang her renown and her 
wrong : 
Famed Amphion raised Thebes by his harp's 
magic tone — • 
Moore exulted the land by the si)ell of his 
song. 





OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 

/^ ENIUS of dual flame by Nature lit, 

\Z^ With twin-borue lights of poesy aud wit, 

Whose peucilled beams in threads of thought 

iutwine, 
And clear through fourscore years of veiling 

shine, 
The century's old — a decade sole remains — 
Our autocrat in Fancy's youth still reigns ; 
The virile verse reveals no swerving rays — 
The poise of theme no senile lapse betrays. 



Share long the glow of lines that shall not die. 
Their sparkle's living reflex in your eye — 
Chastened as diamond facets, keen and pure, 
Fashioned alike to glisten and endure ; 



OLIVEB WENDELL HOLMES. 127 

Your vital lamp in iridescence burning, 
Changing consummate tints with every turn- 
ing — 
Ever with incandescent gleam illuming, 
Kindling men's souls, yet ne'er itself consum- 
ing. 




A VIRGILIAN CHARADE.^ 

A LATIN term in my full form is traced, 
Whose primal part the hero's claim as- 
sumes — 
A clear enclitic in my last is placed, 

Linking a theme that Virgil's soul consumes 
With life of deeds by Classic Art unrolled, 

To light whose fame the epic fire he brings — 
A man set forth in his exalted mould, 

Whose fame in sweet hexameters he sings. 



^Answer: The word virumque, from the first line of the 
iEueiil. 




THE SACRED WHITE ELEPHANT FROM 
SIAM. 



[Written in response to an offer by P. T. Barnum. — The White Elephant 
of Siara has been held sacred to Guatama in the religion of the Buddhists, 
and called by the people Toung Taloung.] 



OUT from the Orient, — auric home pri- 
meval, — 
Reahn of the unreal — maze of mythic lore, — 
From palmy clime, with primal day coeval, 
Earth's peering oriel where her dawn-rays 
pour ! 



First to the Occident — from mystic thrall 
Is lent the light of Thai's faith and throne. 

The aulic elephant of Siam's lustral hall, 
In guise that great Guatama claims alone. 



130 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Sacred Leviathan of land renowned — 

Chosen of Buddha — Rose of vernal shrine 

A myriad chants on Ava's magic ground 

Bespeak the claims of Toung Taloung divine. 

Behind his hallowed stamp of hue revealed, 
Centuple tongues their mysteries have told, 

A chiliad of visioned deeds unsealed, 

A thousand lustrums' vanished dreams un- 
rolled. 

'Round Toung Taloung, like Indra's censers 
swung, 
Cycles of Buddha sweep in weird progres- 
sion, — 
Their incense breathes as lays on Meinam sung 
Of memories chimed in rhythmic retrocession. 





THE LAST DAY OF POMPEII. 

AUGUST 24, A.D. 79. 

WIDESPREAD the centuries, like cinders 
down Vesiivia's side. 
Have passed o'er dead Pompeii since that hist, 

that fatal tide 
Of flame and Hvid hava fell, enfolding thick in 

gloom 
Her homes, her pomp, her stricken site in one 
vast living: tomb. 



Festive the day broke over broad Campania's 
plain and town, 

And even grim Vesuvius' brow for once forgot 
to frown, 

While all encircling hills exulted in the morn- 
ing's breath. 

When doomed Pompeii's people thronged to 
glut their eyes on death. 



132 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Her gaudy villas smiled above the mist and 

valley then, 
Her red-tiled roofs and time-worn towers rose 

young and gay again ; 
Forum and stately arch of triumph shadowed 

naught of strife — 
Portal and crowning statue greeted laden streams 

of life. 

Stay ! for despite their joy the prescient Pliny, 
wise as brave, 

Forboding, marks the trembling shore repel the 
tardy wave. 

And listening, hears with soul of awe, the mur- 
mur hoarse and deep 

Along the beauteous river's bank and laughing 
meadow creep ! 

" The gods protect the guiltless ! vengeful Orcus 

bursts with ire ! " — 
Swift the velaria tent reveals the Mountain's 

rav'nous fire ; 



THE LAST DAY OF POMPEII. 133 

The gladiator, quivering low, is left to rise or 

(lie — 
Lions athirst for life now turn, with human 

fear, to fly. 

Night o'er the realm of Noon with rushing 
blackness swoops on all, 

Vesuvia's vapor, shaped like pine trees, spread- 
ing as a pall ; 

In vain the priest of Isis craves to light the 
sacred flame. 

Vainly the guard of Rome is nerved to body 
forth her name. 



The late Gomorrah, as the old, in ashes sinks 

at last — 
Her day is come, her doom is sealed, — her 

living power is jmst. 
And yet exhumed Pompeii lives again to tell 

her story — 
Clearer than Pliny's classic page to light her 

age and glory. 



134 



BALLADS OF AMERICA. 



Thus oft o'erpowering fate that seems to leave 

the heart forlorn 
Serves but to save the thought and worth for 

ages yet unborn, 
As still survives and speaks above her ashes 

and her woe 
The city burned and buried eighteen hundred 

years ago. 




LJ23^ 




THE SOLITARY. 

ON A PAINTING ,BY THE LATE RRADFORD FREEMAN A 

SOLITARY HERON IN A FOREST AT NIGHT. 

"X "TIGHT on the Germuii wood — stillness and 
-L 1 shade 

On plant, and leaf, save where bent linden 
trees 
Receive the pensive moon-glance on the glade 
And nod their heads beneath the lulling 
breeze. 

Now from his hermit home the heron steals — 
Mute peering watcher, solemn vigil keeping; 

Sullen and lone, strange longing he reveals 
To muse on night and sombre Nature sleep- 
ing. 



136 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

Broods lie again on Scandinavia's Land, 
On visits gone, or summers long ago. 

Reviving joys that with the past expand. 
Or finding now alone the gloom of woe? 

Thus hearts bereft of all love craved to see. 
Like hermit watchers 'mid a shrouded scene 

Withdraw from themes that live or e'er may be, 
To dwell enwrapped with dreams of what 
have been. 




^.'^^^f^ii 




ON A GOLDEN WEDDING. 



TO AMOS C. CLAPP. 



OLD friend, the cycle of whose nuptial 
round 
Has turned the golden matrimoidal bound; 

Five decades' mint now stamp your metal true, 
Five o-onerations sterlinof gleam in you. 

Let not the wedlock's day be deemed declining^ 
Through which this golden sheen of lives is 
shining. 

How few ui)on such gilded heights may meet, 
How many seek them vain with faltering feet ! 

Too rare again their wedding bells are rung. 
Too faint tlieir notes for yours to lapse unsung. 



138 



BALLADS OF AMERICA. 



What treasured thoughts these fifty years un- 
seal — 
What freighted themes their lifted veils reveal ! 

Tried in the crucible that ever glows, 

111 time your life connubial brighter grows; 

For you and her who shares we ask yet more — 
The plaudits of our hearts bespeak encore. 

May she and you shine on as burnislied gold 

endures — ■ 
May benisons of years as bright be hers and 

yours. 





-''■^i^iOif^ 



A BOY'S CHRISTMAS GREETING. 



LINES ENCLOSED WITH A PORTRAIT Ol' ADELBERT POTTER. 



I 



N this — while children's Christmas sonofs are 

sung' — 

Receive the token of a loving boy, 
Who, with his hope so fair and life so young — 
His New Year's bells not yet five chimings 
runcr — 
Would join in all your chanted season's joy. 

Now, as the old year with glad greetings ends. 

To 3'ou, who may this modest likeness see. 
His heart its message, as to kindliest friends. 
To speak good cheer and banish sadness, sends — 
Let this your Adelbei-t's true keepsake be. 




DUTY'S WEAK. 

ON WILLIAM II. UALDWIN's lURTHDAY. 

nVTOT rusting ease, but duty's wear, is 
-i-N blest — 

The proverb of man's Avasting day declares — 
Here labors one who scorns corroding rest. 
Whose works attuned in brain and heart attest 

His stayless nature neither rusts nor wears. 



Like tapers buoyed, in clear unceasing glow. 

In limpid fluid pendant at a shrine. 
His buoyant deeds unresting radiance show, 
With beams above and grateful oil below 

Wherein the lights at once may float and 
shine. 



DUTY'S WEAR. 



141 



Long may his lump of life in bright emission 

Its benison to the shrine of youth bequeath, 
A genial oil relieving heart attrition, 
While effluent flame relumes each dimmed con- 
dition — 
Fed by his flow of kindliness beneath. 





WEALTH AND WORTH. 

ON THE LATE HENKY P. KIDDER. 

AVER not now — "wealth evermore is cold, 
Incisive will enforcing icy heart, 
While Crcesus' grasp imposes gyves with 

gold " — 
Here gleamed a heart whose affluent rays could 
hold 
Such wealth of warmth as souls aglow impart ; 
A will of olden flame for civic weal, 
That burned at wrong, yet beamed with hope 

on woe ; 
A life of worth that homes of pain reveal, 
Uplifting deeds he veiled in loving zeal — 
The grief, the gloom of loss abide below. 





JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. 



L' 



OST to men's eyes, the beams so loving 
given 
Of him by whose life's rending onrs was 

riven — 
The virile brain, suffused in blazoned light. 
Turned swift from flush of noon to shroud of 

night. 
The heart, whose cords we dreamt no fate should 

sever. 

Torn now from vibrant touch of ours for- 
ever ! 

Can we believe this throbbing Nature dead — 

Speak the cold word that notes a spirit lied? 



144 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

That is too dark in prosy gloom — too drear 
For chosen son of Poesy and Cheer. 
Earth's veil no more his radiance conceals — 
This rent his f nil-orbed being's ray reveals, 
With rounded gleam that conjures to 

gaze 
His diorama wrought of "lumined days. 



To pfoal of loftiest dream a hero bends 
And sings a martial strain as he ascends ; 
Anigh the summit's steep the youth arrives, 
Fronted with gibbets — bound with felons' 

gyves; 
For patriot crime that despot ne'er condoned. 
Sent forth as one dishonored and disowned — 
A lot that never e'en the solace gave 
To kneel above a grief-spent mother's grave. 



Though exile fate weighed sore on thought and 

will — 
The poet's proud soul rose, unfettered still : 



JOHN BOYLE O'BEILLY. 145 

In harshest reahiis new scenes of beauty 

learned, 
New lessons charged with heaven-hued love dis- 
cerned ; 
And yet not all that fancy deemed most good — 
Banyan, nor banksia glade, nor Austral wood. 
Jungle of India, — flora of Cathay — 
Not gorgeous South, nor "■ Land of the Malay," 
Nor Java slumbering in her j^ellow air 
Could ever, for his filial eyes, compare 
With that lost Motherland, in plaint, so sweet, 
Whose face his life was nevermore. to meet. 



But now that life, denied to Old World view, 
Was lit to shine in iris of the New, 
Twin hemispheres in vision to embrace. 
With arching bow to span each storm-bent 

race. 
Here were his Nature's wide refracted beams 
To shed divergent yet concentred gleams 
As diamond facets rival glintings show 
While all are blent in iridescent "flow. 



146 BALLADS OF AMERICA. 

O friend, who from the hour you touched this 

Western land, 
Has held our captive heart-strings in your hand, 
You wove our loves in one — proving with voice 

and pen 
What life-spun web a man may spread for 

men, 
Knit with the tlireads of sympathy that bind — 
The interlacing ties that link mankind ! 




si. 









